“Tash!” they called out.
“Morning, guys,” she said sheepishly. “Sorry I slept in. I guess you had breakfast already?”
“Yes,” Cassie said. “We decided not to wake you. Feeling well rested?”
“Yes, thanks,” she said with a smile. “Where are the others?”
“Erin, Brad, Lexie and Rick are playing doubles tennis. Carter, Lucas, Jarryd and Gavin decided to walk to the shops in the centre of town to get some more food for lunch since we used some of their ingredients for last night’s dinner.”
“That’s a pretty long walk,” she commented, wondering how much sleep Gavin had last night.
“About an hour there and back,” Jade said. “That’s their exercise for the day.”
“Hey,” Cassie said. “Would you have time to go to Ari’s tomorrow during your lunch break? My dress is ready for my first fitting and your bridesmaid dresses are also done.”
“Sure. I should be okay. But I thought you were scheduled for next Saturday?”
“I was, but Ari’s just a star. Her team finished early and she texted me this morning that she has time to see us tomorrow. And I’m just too excited! It’ll be you, me and Lexie for tomorrow. Then I’ll go again with Jade, Erin and Marilyn next time.”
“I heard that,” came Carter’s voice from around the corner. He, Lucas, Jarryd and Gavin appeared, carrying grocery bags.
Natasha’s caught herself smiling widely—at Gavin—and pretended she was smiling at her brother instead. “Where have you guys been?”
“I see you’re finally awake, sis,” Carter said. “Now you have to help us with the barbecue lunch since you didn’t help with breakfast.”
“Yeah, sorry. I had a hard time sleeping last night and when I did, it was almost four.”
“You okay?” Carter asked with concern.
“Yes,” she said with a bright smile. “Are we ready to prep lunch?”
“In a while. You can have your breakfast first. And, oh, you can make the salads for lunch. We got all the ingredients for that. Lucas, Gavin and I will marinate the meats and man the barbie.”
“I bet you bought ready-made marinades from the shops,” Jade said.
“We’re just following Carter’s suggestions,” Lucas said. “He’s the head chef today.”
“Head chef,” Cassie said with a snort.
“Well, the three of us can’t cook like Jarryd, so why not take the easy option?” Carter said.
Natasha shook her head. “I bet you guys are happy I slept in this morning. Gives you a reason to assign the fiddly stuff to me. But seriously, Carter, salads aren’t hard. You can chop, can’t you?”
“It’s the taste, Tash. And you’re so good at making salads.”
“I’ll help you chop, Tash,” Gavin said.
She turned to him, remembering to put on a cold front. “It’s okay. I can do it by myself.”
“You’re better at barbecuing, Gav,” Carter said. “I’ll give Tash a hand. I was only joking earlier.”
She bit back her grin. See? She really was a good actress—even her detective brother was fooled.
*****
“Hello, ladies,” Ari’s assistant greeted them. “Ari’s just running late with another customer, but she’ll be with you shortly. Please feel free to browse around or go straight to the private room. There are refreshments ready there for you.”
“Thank you,” they said.
Natasha went to the racks of party dresses Ari had in this particular shop. She might even try a couple of new ones that she hadn’t had the chance to check out the last time she was here.
“This is a bad idea,” Lexie whispered. “I’ll end up getting another outfit I hadn’t planned on buying.”
“I know,” she said with a snicker. “Maybe this is Ari’s tactic to get her customers buying more.”
“Thank you so much, Ari,” they heard someone say from the back of the store where’s Ari’s office was located. “I can’t believe you’ll be designing my wedding dress. I’m so excited.”
“You’re welcome, Amber. And thank you for today,” Ari said.
Natasha frowned, looking at the woman Ari had called Amber—who also sounded so much like the Amber she knew. Her eyes widened, unable to believe her eyes. It was Gavin’s ex! She must have dyed her hair blond, or she was wearing a wig, but she was pretty sure it was Amber.
She was getting married? To whom?
“Sorry to have kept you waiting, ladies,” Ari said to them when Amber had left the shop. “I’m ready for you now.”
“I’ll be right there,” Natasha called out. “I just remembered something I need to tell my assistant at work.”
“Take your time,” Cassie responded, happily herding Lexie to the private room with Ari.
She went to one of the regular fitting rooms and called Gavin. Amber getting a wedding dress made by a top designer was just too strange to ignore when she was supposed to be in hiding from people who wanted to kill her.
“Tash,” Gavin said, his tone warm.
“Hi,” she said in an almost-whisper. “Are you in the office?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Did you know that Amber’s getting married?”
“What? No. She couldn’t be, because she told me she doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well, she just hired Ari to design her wedding dress.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yes. We all heard her.”
“And you’re sure it’s Amber?”
“Straight shoulder-length blond hair?”
“Fuck.”
“I thought I’d tell you because—”
“Who are you with, Tash?” Gavin interrupted, his tone urgent.
“Cassie and Lexie. They’re in the private room with Ari.”
“Join them now. Don’t be walking around anywhere alone. Can you get one of them to walk back with you to your office?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Can you stay with your parents tonight? Or better yet, can you invite yourself to Carter and Cassie’s? Sleep at their place tonight. Make something up that they’ll believe.”
“Okay,” she responded, getting nervous.
“I’ll call you again soon, okay? I need to find out what’s going on. In the meantime, please text me every half an hour so I know you’re safe. Please.”
“I will.”
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too.”
*****
Natasha pushed food around her plate. It had been more than three hours since Gavin’s last text and she couldn’t stop worrying about him. Had something gone wrong? He’d said he was going to Peter Gunn and would update her as soon as he could.
“Not hungry, Tash?” Cassie asked softly.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s really nice, but I had a big snack before I finished work. Hey, um, do you guys mind if I sleep here tonight? I just don’t want to be alone at home.”
“What’s wrong?” both Carter and Cassie asked at the same time.
She took a deep breath. “It’s just that Jarryd likes Marilyn, and I thought at first he liked me. It’s a bit hard to cope with after Gavin’s rejection, you know?”
“Oh, Tash,” Cassie said, touching her arm. “I thought you said you weren’t interested in Jarryd at all.”
“I thought I wasn’t,” she said with a sad shrug. “But please don’t tell anyone else. It will be awkward.”
“Of course, you can stay,” Carter said with a sympathetic smile.
“Hey, we can watch movies after dinner,” Cassie said. “I’ll make popcorn, and we have four different flavours of ice cream in the fridge.”
“Thank you.” She’d rather hide in the room and wait for Gavin’s next call, but that would make the couple more concerned.
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Carter said with a frown.
“I wonder who that is,” Cassie murmured.
Her heart poun
ded in her chest. She hated these unexpected calls after business hours. With Carter and Gavin’s jobs, she couldn’t help but imagine it was the police knocking with some bad news.
She kept her eye on the threshold, waiting for Carter to come back.
And Gavin appeared with him.
Relief made her eyes water. And when Gavin grinned at her as if he didn’t have a care in world, she stood up and hurried towards him.
Gavin enveloped her in his arms and lifted her off the floor.
“I was so worried about you,” she said, clutching him tight.
“Sorry. Things happened so fast that I didn’t get the chance to update you. But we’ve caught the culprit.”
“You have?” she said with gleeful wonder, staring at him with rounded eyes.
“Excuse me,” Carter said dryly. “Would someone care to tell us what’s going on?”
They both looked at Carter, still not letting go of each other.
“I’m in love with your sister,” Gavin said with a grin.
She giggled, dipping her head on his shoulder.
“Oh, that’s great,” Cassie said, looking at her in utter confusion.
Guilt hit her. “Sorry, guys,” she said. “When I said I was interested in Jarryd, I was lying.”
“You told them you were interested in Jarryd?” Gavin asked.
“You told me to come up with an excuse so they wouldn’t wonder why I wanted to stay here for the night.”
“Okay, you two,” Carter said. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’ll—”
“What?” she asked her brother teasingly.
“C’mon, just put us out of our misery,” Carter said with a huff.
“Let’s all go back to the dining table and talk about it,” Cassie said. “Have you had dinner, Gav?”
“No. I’m starving, actually.”
“Good. We’re having lasagne and salads. There’s plenty for you.”
“Thanks.”
“So is it over now?” she asked Gavin as they followed Cassie.
“This case is, yes,” he said with a smile.
“Well,” Carter said, looking displeased. “It sounds like you were working on something that you couldn’t tell me about.”
“That’s exactly what it was, bro,” Gavin said as he sat down next to Natasha at the dining table.
Carter glared at his best friend. “And it has something to do with Biggs and Tash’s life being in danger again— that’s why you broke up with her. Then you couldn’t keep your hands of each other and... what happens next?”
“I’m really sorry I had to keep it from you, Carter. But I had to.” Gavin told Carter and Cassie what he’d told Natasha at the guest house.
“Damn it, Gavin,” Carter said. “I would have liked to know.”
“Without knowing who the perps were, and how capable they were of carrying out their threats, I couldn’t, bro. You were going to be their first target if I’d called the police.”
Carter grimaced, then smiled his thanks at his friend. “So then what?”
“Tash called me at lunchtime to tell me that Amber was getting a wedding dress made by Ari.”
“Oh my gosh,” Cassie exclaimed. “That was Amber at Ari’s shop?”
Natasha nodded. “I couldn’t believe it, either. So I called Gavin and he told me to stay here with you tonight while he figured out what was going on.”
“And he’s figured it out, from the looks of it. So who sent you the threats?” Carter asked Gavin.
“Amber herself.”
“What?” all three exclaimed.
Gavin exhaled heavily. “When Tash called to say that Amber was in the same shop as her, the first thing that occurred to me was that someone could be watching Tash’s movements. But Scott, one of my detectives, said that apart from Amber, there was no one suspicious within the vicinity.”
“So you had someone following Amber?” Carter asked.
“No. Scott and my other guy, El, have been following Tash.”
“Me?” Natasha asked with a frown.
“Yes,” Gavin said with an apologetic smile. “I wanted to be extra sure you were safe. I forgot to tell you about it at the guest house. I was too distracted.”
She sighed, smiling. It would have been good if Gavin himself had been her security detail—but he’d already told her why he had to stay away from her.
“So you guys got to talk at the guest house?” Cassie asked. “We didn’t see you spend any time together.”
Natasha felt herself blush while Gavin laughed.
“Oh,” Carter said dryly, “That was why my sister slept in the next morning, and why you were so relaxed and happy when you were positively depressed the night before.”
“It was so hard to keep quiet,” Gavin said with tongue in cheek. “But at least we managed not to wake anyone up.”
Cassie gasped, reddening.
Natasha slapped his thigh. “Continue with your story, please.”
“Well, after you called, I raced to my place knowing Amber wasn’t there. The fact that she was getting a wedding gown made when she told me she was single crystallised the suspicious feelings I’ve had but couldn’t put a finger on. Thank God I’d followed my gut when it told me to find out her laptop password, just in case I ever needed it in the future. So when I got home, I checked out her computer files. Among the things that I found were the two threatening letters. The documents’ properties said they were authored by her. When she came home at around four, Peter—Carter’s boss—was already there. Amber knew then that the best thing for her was tell the whole truth in exchange for a deal.”
“Wow,” Natasha said. “How did you know her password?”
“I’d waited for a chance to spy on her while she typed it. I got it one night when she was waiting for the start of her favourite TV show. She was distracted enough not to notice I was looking.”
“Do you know my password?”
Gavin snickered. “No. I’m not gonna do that to you, sweetheart. I trust you.”
“I don’t mind if you know,” she said with a shrug.
“So why did Amber write the letters?” Carter asked, frowning at her—probably from interrupting Gavin.
“Because she became greedy. She agreed to help her ex-boyfriend to become Biggs’ right-hand man in exchange for loads of cash.”
“What?”
“When Biggs kept Amber as a prisoner in one of his hideaways, he assigned a guy named Jay to guard her. Well, Amber and Jay fell in love. Since they couldn’t afford to let Biggs know about their relationship, Jay asked Biggs to assign him to Brisbane to start their illegal business there. Biggs agreed, and Jay helped Amber escape. Amber lived with Jay in Brisbane and helped his team manufacture ecstasy, without Biggs’ knowledge.
“Two years ago, Jay broke up with Amber. She went to Darwin to distance herself from her illegal activities. That’s where she’s been living, not Broome, like she told me and the police. Then last year, she met Frank—her current fiancé.
“A few weeks ago, Jay found her in Darwin and had a proposition for her. Biggs was looking for someone to run his business from the outside, and needed someone as tough and ruthless as he was. Jay wanted to become that man. Apparently, even though Biggs has already lost many friends and allies, his customer list is still the source of envy in their circles. To impress Biggs, Jay decided that carrying out Biggs’ vendetta against me was the way to go—and he knew just the perfect person to help him do that.”
“I can’t believe Amber agreed to something that would put her life at risk,” Natasha said. “Wasn’t she scared that Biggs really wanted her dead? And that he could get various people to do the deed?”
“That was why she contacted me. She knew I’d keep her safe because I want to see Biggs behind bars forever. Plus, living in my apartment and gaining my trust gave her the perfect opportunity to learn where the police were in terms of their investigations so she could update Jay. It was very ballsy, and qui
te smart. They planned to keep the whole charade going until Biggs appointed Jay as his second-in-charge. Then Amber planned to disappear again to Darwin and marry her fiancé, who has no idea what she’s been doing here.”
“How did she plan to just disappear when you and the police are guarding her?” Carter asked.
“Jay convinced her he had the perfect plan. He said that he helped her escape before, so he could help her escape again. Exactly what the plan is, we don’t know. But it’s not gonna happen now. Amber is giving up everything she knows about Biggs’ syndicate—and she knows a lot from being Jay’s girlfriend for almost three years. The information she’s giving is actually more helpful than anything the police had gotten out of Biggs and Austin Sharp. Her testimony will put a lot of people in jail, not just Biggs.”
“Wow. She’s probably regretting going to Ari for her wedding dress,” Natasha murmured.
Gavin chuckled. “We got really lucky—and they got unlucky.”
“Phew. So what next?”
“It’s all in the hands of the police now, so I can spend more time with you.”
“Can I stay at your place tonight?”
“I’d love for you to, babe.”
Natasha grinned, relief and love washing over her. With Gavin’s work, there would never be a dull moment. But she was more than capable of handling the stresses it brought. As long as they were together—and free to express their love for each other—that was all that mattered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Four months later...
Natasha wrinkled her nose at the smell of prawns cooking on the barbecue. Ugh. Now she didn’t feel like eating at all. She walked towards Lexie and Rick’s pool area, hoping that she could escape the offending smell.
What was wrong with her, anyway? She usually liked barbecued prawns. Had Rick added something to it to make the smell so strong? She breathed a sigh of relief as a gust of early-summer breeze blew the aroma away from where she was standing.
“Hey, Tash,” Cassie said, joining her. “Keen to dive in the pool?”
“Yes, but not just yet,” she said with a smile, noticing how her sister-in-law of two months had been unconsciously touching her belly. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
The Unforgettable Ex (Captured by Love Book 5) (Volume 5) Page 17